(03-31-2014 12:09 PM)hapapp Wrote: Darrin Horn's name has cropped up as a possible replacement for Jason Capel at App State. Any thoughts?

Haha..Really? No Horn was a really good recruiter but we nicknamed him HorNit.....We had a lot of talent and only 1 NCAA to show for it and he was very fortunate we hit that shot to start our deep run in the tournament...Horns teams were pretty good on offense even though we mostly ran a three man weave up top....Defense was a different story, his teams we were soft on defense...Horn could be a very good assistant, but I think I would move off him as far as Head coach again....

Really suprised he would get back into coaching, he seemed to be doing a good job broadcasting, showed more personality there than I ever saw in his 4 seasons at WKU...

If I recall, the Cajuns were very talented during his tenure as well with 10 players during that time frame still playing professionally. WKU was very good under Horn.

All you need to know about Horn at some point in his 5 years he had ...

5 conference player of the year players on the team...a couple playing together and only 1 championship.

took over a team that won 3 conference championships in a row with the following players coming back..

AW (easily top 10 guard in Western's history)
Mike Wells SBC player and defensive player of the year
Big Jelly 6-11 and a unstoppable force inside shot 67%, 16ppg and 10 rebounds
Pandov a 6'9 jumping jack that scored 12ppg & 62.5% the year before
Jamaal Brown 6'7 who was the freshman of the year the year before ....went on to transfer and avg 17ppg his last 2 seasons
pg Antonio Haynes 12ppg, a 40% 3pt shooter
pg Mr Danny Rumph 11ppg who the year after this season would pass away on mothers day

Horn took that talent and coached them into a 15-13 season instead of what should have been a sweet 16 team...

size, shooting, defense, great guards usually adds up to a NCAA run

then it took a 30 foot shot after being up 13 or so with about 5 minutes to play to beat Drake.

I am pretty patient when it comes to coaches so I was never as down on Horn as some of the other Hilltopper fans were.

I do think that WKU plucked him from the tree before he was ready to be head coach. He was going to run the system he wanted to run regardless of the players he had to work with or what system they were familiar with. As such he squandered some talent that first year.

I would agree that he was a better recruiter than in game coach although I wonder if he has gained any perspective since then. But he was a pretty darn good recruiter.

I met Horn one time and he did not strike me as arrogant. I told him that I was looking forward to the upcoming season and his eyes got as big saucers and he said "I can't wait."

I don't think that WKU would ever hire him again because that ship has kind of sailed. But I think Appalachian State could do worse.

(03-31-2014 08:54 PM)wkuhilltopperfan Wrote: Horn would elevate App for sure, I just don't know if he could pull the talant he needs to App to be successful

Capel was a par recruiter and picked up recruits that were actually pretty good, just couldn't coach, we have a great facility and also like WKU we come from a basketball state, I think there plenty opportunity for recruitment for a guy that is good at that kind of thing big thing is he has to know how to coach as well as recruit

I like to think (hope) that Coach Horn has matured. He came in young and rubbed people the wrong way early and never could make it up (not that he tried really hard.)

Everything Beed and WKUYG said are spot on. It was frustrating that it took five seasons to get back to the NCAAs after we'd been there three years straight. His first season, he stubbornly tried to run his program even when the roster didn't support it. We could have won the SBC, but instead went .500.

I do think it should be mentioned, though, that he recruited good kids that behaved themselves and graduated.

Again, I have to think he has matured and learned his lessons. I would like to see him on the sideline again.